Name: Celery Soup
Ingredients: 9 heads celery; 1 teaspoon salt; nutmeg to taste; 1 lump sugar; 2 pints strong stock; 1 pint cream or 1 pint milk and 1 pint cream; 2 quarts boiling water

Why it works: Celery and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,331 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Celery Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cut the celery into small pieces.

Cook and strain

Add the celery to the boiling water, seasoned with nutmeg, salt, and sugar.
Boil until tender, then strain through a sieve.

Finish and serve

Add the stock and simmer for 30 minutes.
Stir in the cream and milk, bring to a boil, and serve.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Celery + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,331 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,920 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Celery + creamtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,863 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
Nutmeg + sugartop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together23,364 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).